• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.459-475
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• 2022

The equal sign and equivalence are the most basic and core concepts in elementary mathematics, but there has been lack of research on how to teach these concepts with textbooks. Given this, this study analyzed elementary mathematics textbooks in terms of three instructional elements (i.e., emphasizing the meaning of the equal sign as a relational symbol, dealing with an equation as an object for reasoning, and using an equation with a missing value). In particular, this study analyzed 10 different mathematics textbook series that are newly used in 2022 and examined the overall trends and characteristics for teaching the equal sign and equivalence. The results of this study showed that the activities emphasizing the meaning of the equal sign as a relational symbol were most noticeable but the activities dealing with an equation as an object for reasoning or using an equation with a missing value were relatively rare. Based on the results of the analysis, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in covering the equal sign and equivalence.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.143-164
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• 2013

Despite the recent emphasis on mathematical communication, little practical guide has been provided for a teacher with what to do for orchestrating high-quality discussions in a mathematics classroom. This paper analyzed 20 elementary mathematics lessons which were recognized as effective instruction in Korea using an analytic framework with regard to 5 practices for orchestrating productive mathematics discussions (i.e., anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, & connecting) by Smith and Stein (2011) in terms of performance scales from Level 0 to 3. The results of this study showed that the most frequent levels were Level 1 including undesirable practices and Level 2 including insufficient practices. There were only one or two lessons per practice which were assessed as Level 3 of good performance. Specifically, Level 2 was the most frequent with regard to monitoring and selecting, whereas Level 1 was the most frequent as for the other practices. This paper provides some implications for co-ordinating productive mathematics discussions.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.309-331
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• 2016

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority(ACARA) was founded by Australian federal government in 2009. Leading under ACARA, national education curriculum development was propelled. Also from 2014 they gradually extended enforcement of new curriculum by a Reminder about new syllabus implementation (2013.01.29.). The research result of Australia's curriculum, and textbook shows that students repeat, and advance the same contents under spiral curriculum as they move to higher grade. They actively use digital technology, and also puts emphasis on practical context such as Money & financial mathematics. On the level of difficulty, or quantity aspect, Korea handles relatively advanced contents of 'number and operation' or 'Letters and Algebraic Expressions' domain than Australia. However on statistics domain, Australia not only puts more focus on practical stats than Korea, but also concerns as much on both various and qualitative terms Australia doesn't deal with formal concept of 'function'. However, they learn the wide concept of function by handling various graphs. This shows Australia has a point of similarity, and also difference to Korea on various angles.

• School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.551-568
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to verify the research trends on 101 articles about mathematical creativity published in domestic journals. The analysis criteria are as follows: (1)What kind of terms the articles use to refer to the creativity in mathematics education, (2)Whether the researchers conceptualize such the terms or not, (3)Whether the definitions are domain-specific or not, (4)What perspectives, categories and levels of the articles have on creativity. The results of this study show the following. First, numerous articles used 'mathematical creativity' in order to point to the creativity in mathematics education. Second, among the 101 selected articles, 60 (59.4%) provided an explicit definition of the mathematical creativity and 19(18.8%) provided an implicit definition. Among the 79 articles, only 43(54.4%) provided domain-specific definitions. Second, the percentage of articles preferring one perspective over the other 3 perspectives were similar. Third, the rate of articles which focused on press(environment) of all categories (person, process, product, press) was low. Fourth, regarding the levels of creativity, most articles were done on little-c creativity level, on the other hand, the articles having an interest in mini-creativity were very rare. Based on these results, necessities of explicit and domestic-specific definition, whole approach of mathematical creativity, and articles focusing on the mini-creativity level should be reported.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.247-267
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• 2016

It has been pointed out that the mathematics textbooks according to 2009 revised national curriculum cause difficulty not by mathematical knowledge but concomitantly by words and sentences for the first graders who just started learning Korean alphabets. This study focused on the suitability of words and sentences in mathematics textbooks for elementary first grade. We analyzed the degree of difficulty and familiarity in terms of words and the structure, length, and expression in terms of sentences. The results show some causes that lead the first graders to the difficulty. In more detail, we found 108 difficult words and 6 unfamiliar words for the first graders. And it is noticed that the textbooks contain 37 compound sentences, 727 complex sentences, and 38 compound-complex sentences. They also contain 237 long sentences that are composed of 9 words or more, 168 sentences that assign two activities or more, and 52 sentences that contain three nouns or adjectives or more successively. Based on these results and discussions, we suggested several implications for writing mathematics textbooks for the lower grades in elementary school.

• School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.443-457
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• 2013

This study investigated the perceptions of beginning teachers about teacher knowledge. Reflections and improvement of their class knowledge have been perceived as the most important factors by beginning teachers. In terms of utilization of actual classes, teacher knowledge, mathematical concepts and correlations such as connection linked to class contents and hierarchy have been used the most. Among the needed teachers knowledge, knowledge of student understanding and mathematics content knowledge was the most essential knowledge that could be mainly formed through classroom experience and teacher training program. On the other hand, knowledge about technology and assessment was not necessary or useful factor for beginning teachers. To facilitate formation of beginning teachers' knowledge, teacher introductory program, mentoring program, interactive relationship with teacher education institutes, curriculum improvement for teacher education institute and the development and dissemination of various teachers training program would be required.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.681-700
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• 2010

These days, the importance of the mathematics interaction is strongly emphasized, which leads to the need of research on how the interaction is being practiced in the math class and what can be the desirable interaction in terms of mathematical thinking. To figure out the correlation between the mathematical interaction patterns and mathematical thinking, it also classifies mathematical thinking levels into the phases of recognizing, building-with and constructing. we can say that there are all of three patterns of the mathematics interactions in the class, and although it seems that the funnel pattern is contributing to active interaction between the students and teachers, it has few positive effects regarding mathematical thinking. In other words, what we need is not the frequency of the interaction but the mathematics interaction that improves students' mathematical thinking. Therefore, we can conclude that it is the focus pattern that is desirable mathematics interaction in the class in the view of mathematical thinking.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.403-426
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• 2012

This paper analyzed 20 teaching practices of elementary mathematics lessons which were recognized as effective instruction by the local educational offices throughout Korea, using an analytic framework with 4 main domains (i.e., curriculum and content, teaching and learning, classroom environment and atmosphere, and assessment) and a total of 44 sub-elements. The results of this study showed that the lessons focused on the key mathematics concepts according to the national mathematics curriculum and learning objectives, managed students in terms of shared rules within each classroom, and evaluated students' understanding of the concepts at the end of the lesson. However, the lessons did not foster students' calculation skills and only partly used either technology or game. Building on the related studies, this paper included implications of implementing high-quality mathematics instruction.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.445-453
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• 2019

Gender might be interpreted in different roles and meanings depending on social and cultural backgrounds. Based on the premise that understanding of gender may change the direction of mathematics education, this paper confirmed how gender is interpreted in the preceding study of mathematics education in Korea by applying the literature research method. In particular, predictive model based on empirical perspective and gender schema model based on constructivist perspective. Based on the analysis of gender and research methods in cultural and historical composition models based on historical perspectives and postmodernism models based on postmodernism perspectives, this study analyzed trends in domestic mathematics education. As a result of the analysis, it is confirmed that gender is recognized as a biological difference in domestic mathematics education, and that analysis of gender and related elements of mathematics education is mainly used using statistical analysis techniques. This suggests that various approaches to interpreting gender's role in future mathematics education are needed. The existing mathematics education research on gender is composed in terms of gender differences. Since biology at the time did not explain this difference, however, it should now be based on the concept of gender, which is socially defined gender. Accurate understanding of gender and gender can be the basis for clearer understanding and interpretation of gender-related mathematics research.

• School Mathematics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.181-196
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• 2007

It would have a trouble to communicate mathematically without an appropriate use of mathematical language. Therefore it is necessary to form mathematics classroom culture to encourage students to use mathematical language precisely. A four-month teaching experiment in a 4th grade mathematics class was conducted focused the accurate use of mathematical language. In the course of the teaching experiment, children became more careful to use their language precisely. The use of demonstrative pronouns such as this or that as well as the use of inaccurate or wrong expressions was diminished. Children became to use much more mathematical symbols and terms instead of their imprecise expressions. The result of the experiment suggests that the culture that encourage students to use mathematical language precisely can be formed in elementary mathematics classroom.